Outgoing U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan gives his farewell address at the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington Dec. 19, 2018. Ryan, 48, has served for almost two decades as a congressman representing Wisconsin State in the House of Representatives. His speakership will be succeeded on Jan. 3 by Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic congresswoman who is now House Minority Leader. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Outgoing U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that outrage has become a brand of current U.S. politics, and that the drivers of "broken politics" are more obvious than solutions.
Delivering his final speech as House Speaker at the marble lobby of the Library of Congress in the nation's capital, Ryan said, "too often, genuine disagreement quickly gives way to intense distrust," adding that politics of outrage "becomes more industrialized, more cold, more unfeeling."
"It's exhausting. It saps meaning from our politics and it discourages good people from pursuing public service," the Republican said.
He admitted that he has no answer to how public service can be brought back to the starting point of humility, yet he reminded his colleagues who gathered to witness the occasion that "human connection is one lane on the road back to aspiration and inclusion as the guiding influences of public life."
Ryan said the problems facing the United States are "absolutely solvable," but that is on the premise that "our politics will allow it."
In addition to reviewing some of the achievements made during his tenure, Ryan also took the chance to call on Congress to launch visa issuance reform, finding solution for both undocumented immigrants and immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.
Ryan, 48, has served for almost two decades as a congressman representing the U.S. state of Wisconsin in the House of Representatives. His speakership will be succeeded on Jan. 3 by Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic congresswoman who is now House Minority Leader.
